Bullying among kids tied to suicidal thoughts, suicide attempts

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - School children who are bullied
are more than twice as likely to think about killing themselves
and to make suicide attempts as their peers who aren't bullied,
according to a new analysis.

Researchers also found that cyberbullying, such as
harassment over the Internet, was more closely linked to
suicidal thoughts than in-person bullying.

"We found that suicidal thoughts and attempted suicides are
significantly related to bullying, a highly prevalent behavior
among adolescents," Mitch van Geel told Reuters Health in an
email.

Van Geel is the study's lead author from the Institute of
Education and Child Studies at Leiden University in the
Netherlands.

He said it's estimated that between 15 and 20 percent of
children and teens are involved in bullying as the perpetrator,
victim or both.

"Thus efforts should continue to reduce bullying among
children and adolescents, and to help those adolescents and
children involved in bullying," he wrote.

While previous studies have found links between bullying and
suicidal thoughts and attempted suicides, less is known about
whether the association differs between boys and girls. Also,
fewer studies have examined the role of cyberbullying.

For the new analysis, published in JAMA Pediatrics, the
researchers searched databases for previous studies published on
bullying.

They found 34 studies that examined bullying and suicidal
thoughts among 284,375 participants between nine and 21 years
old. They also found nine studies that examined the relationship
between bullying and suicide attempts among 70,102 participants
of the same age.

Overall, participants who were bullied were more than twice
as likely to think about killing themselves. They were also
about two and a half times more likely to attempt killing
themselves.

In one study included in the analysis, for instance,
researchers found that about 3 percent of students from New York
State who were not bullied thought about or attempted suicide.
That compared to 11 percent of students who were frequently
bullied.

The extra risk of suicidal thoughts and suicide attempts
tied to bullying was similar among participants of different age
groups and among boys and girls.

Suicidal thoughts were more strongly linked to
cyberbullying than to traditional bullying, but the researchers
caution that this finding is based on data from only a handful
of studies.

"At this point, this is speculative and more research is
definitely needed on cyberbullying," van Geel wrote.

It could be, however, that cyberbullying victims feel
belittled in front of a wider audience and may relive the
attacks because they are stored on the Internet, he added.

"I think it fits with a literature that's been around for
some time that suggests the kids who are worse off are the kids
who can't escape from bullying," William Copeland told Reuters
Health.

Copeland, who was not involved with the new study, has
researched bullying at the Duke University School of Medicine in
Durham, North Carolina.

He cautioned that the studies included in the analysis can't
prove bullying caused suicidal thoughts or suicide attempts. It
could be, for example, that kids who attempt or think about
suicide are more likely to be bullied.

Copeland said there are an increasing number of school-based
programs aimed at preventing bullying.

"I don't think we know quite as much about targeting kids
who have been bullied and preventing those suicidality
behaviors," he added.

Copeland said parents can ask their kids about how things
are going and whether anyone is giving them problems at school
or online to help the children open up about bullying.

"Some people have the assumption that bullying is a part of
growing up, that bullying is relatively harmless, or even that
it may build character," van Geel wrote.

"There are now meta-analyses that demonstrate that bullying
is related to depression, psychosomatic problems and even
suicide attempts, and thus we should conclude that bullying is
definitely not harmless," he added.

SOURCE: http://bit.ly/17hF0sY JAMA Pediatrics, online March
10, 2014.

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